Do you give your customers directions?

Ok, so I live in a little town that is pretty clueless when it comes to things like fondant, royal icing, etc. Most people here are used to going to a big store and picking up a generic cake with generic roses and just taking it home and cutting right into it. I love to do royal icing flowers; I think there are more flower choices with royal than BC for obvious reasons, but I really think that if I didn't explain royal icing to my customers, they would think they had gotten stale icing! So, I always tell them: it's a different type of icing that is more conducive to making lifelike flowers; it is edible, but it dries very hard.

So, I'm curious; do any of you feel like you're giving instructions to your customers when they pick up a cake? Not just about icings, but about anything related to their cake order. How much info do you tell them, and how much do you kind of expect them to figure out?

I have a friend that gives out what everything is so if the peron is allergic to something or if they dont like something, and they failed to tell her, they know what everything is. Also I know most of the people that I know that decorate cakes give out cutting guide but thats it. sorry I couldnt help more.

As all decorating techniques beside marzipan modelling aren´t that familiar to the germans, I have to tell everything to everyone That can really be frustrating when you present your cakes at a bridal show and have to talk with nearly 200 people ... That was one reason for me to explain all that on my web-site. For the restaurant I always bring a copy of the cutting-plan, when I deliver the cake and most of the time explain everything about the decoration, the ingrediants etc. to them too.

Glad to know I'm not the only one that gives explanations for cakes! I'm always a little concerned though that if my customers feel they need an instruction manual to eat a cake from me, that they'll eventually decide it's too much hassle for "just" a birthday cake. I always give an outline for wedding cakes that includes cutting guidelines, number of servings per tier, etc, but I've wondered if this is overkill for more standard cakes. I guess more people do something like this for all cakes than I realized. Good to know! You guys are great!

For all of my 3D sculptures, I provide serving directions. It outlines what to remove before cutting (such as flowers attached with floral wire or other pieces attached with skewers). I tell them where the dowels are if included and general cutting directions. I think people appreciate it.

I give a cutting guide if they are not having an expert cut the cake, written directions for storing and if they are saving the top tier, instructions for that. I give them a written count of dowels used and where they are. Instructions regarding what must be returned and by what date. I also make note of any ingredients that could cause allergic reactions like almond extract, etc.If they are picking up the cake, I give them pieces of rubberized shelf liner to line their car underneath where the cake boxes will sit.For birthday cakes, I also include candles.Hugs SquirrellyEdited to add, yes I explain the attributes and handling of the particular icings and filling in the cakes so that they know what to expect and how to store.

I know this post is a little bit older.... but I was wondering if anyone has posted a "cutting guide" for anything. I know Wilton has some in their yearbooks - but I thought I had seen one for sheetcakes a little while back and now I can't find it. I also always wondered about those barbie cakes and odd-shaped cakes. So is there a cutting guide posted and I just can't find it? I'd appreciate if anyone could post it again for me or just send me a link to that thread!

I know this post is a little bit older.... but I was wondering if anyone has posted a "cutting guide" for anything. I know Wilton has some in their yearbooks - but I thought I had seen one for sheetcakes a little while back and now I can't find it. I also always wondered about those barbie cakes and odd-shaped cakes. So is there a cutting guide posted and I just can't find it? I'd appreciate if anyone could post it again for me or just send me a link to that thread!

Do you think the pieces should only be 2 x 1? I think that's what they are saying.... If it's a 2 layer cake? I'm thinking it's a lot of cake... but I'm just not sure. I was going to try to pre-score, or make some kind of divisions to help them cut it.

Somehow my post doens't seem to make sense here. I'm doing the 2 12 x 18 cakes stacked on top of each other and I'm doing 2 sets of that - basically 2 full sheet cakes stacked on top of each other to create one 2-layer full sheetcake. I think I've posted this question elsewhere too so I'm so sorry if I'm confusing people. If anyone wants to reply to either post, I would appreciate it!